Supreme Court sides with Gloucester County, blocks trans student from using correct bathroom

The Associated Press is reporting the US Supreme Court has reversed a motion from a lower court which would have allowed Gavin Grimm to use the boys bathroom this upcoming school year.

Grimm, 16, has been battling with the Gloucester County School Board over his right to use the restroom aligning with his gender identity, not his birth gender. His case failed at the district level, a federal court reversed that ruling. Until today, Grimm was expected to be able to use the boys restroom. But now, after today’s news from SCOTUS, the opposite seems to be in effect.

“We are disappointed that the Court has issued a stay and that Gavin will have to begin another school year isolated from his peers and stigmatized by the Gloucester County School Board just because he’s a boy who is transgender,” said a statement on the ACLU’s website. The legal group has been representing Grimm along with Lambda Legal since it first went to court last year. “We remain hopeful that Gavin will ultimately prevail.”

Gloucester County School Board had asked for SCOTUS’s intervention in mid-July, but the decision by the Fourth Circuit had given the teen and his legal team hope.

AP reported The vote was split 5-3, with Justice Stephen Breyer, who was appointed by a Democrat, siding with the majority.

The US Department of Justice and the Obama administration had come to Grimm’s aid during the legal process with legal briefs supporting the student’s cause. Obama has also issued an order through the Department of Education that all public schools should accommodate transgender students with bathrooms and locker rooms which coincide with their gender identity.

The case still hasn’t seen a real day in court, but rather a number of hearings to suspend the school board’s policy while Grimm attends school. The court date is set for early next year back in Norfolk District Court.